The NDP announced Monday it will send newly acquired documents pertaining to last year's G8 summit to the RCMP, with the hope that the Mounties will launch an investigation into whether funds were misappropriated to MP Tony Clement's riding.
The New Democrats said they will also ask the House of Commons ethics committee to probe how funds tied to last year's summit were used for infrastructure projects in Clement's Conservative riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka.
The NDP says the new documents include emails between Clement and Huntsville Mayor Claude Doughty.
In the House of Commons, NDP MP Charlie Angus said the emails suggest the government has much to explain about the spending of G8 funds.
Angus said that in one series of emails, Clement vows to look into why a government review has temporarily cut off funding.
In another, Clement suggests that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was upset that the Ontario Provincial Police questioned the use of a new hockey rink as a media centre on security grounds.
"They have some serious explaining to do," Angus said.
He said that the government spent $21 million on a hockey arena and "Olympic-sized" pool and tried to pass it off as an international media centre that was never used.
"So we know what the minister was trying to hide. What's not so clear is why was the prime minister so personally furious when officials stepped in?"
Tory MP Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, spoke for the prime minister in question period, and said the government has "nothing to hide."
"The facts have not changed," Obhrai said. "This matter has been thoroughly aired. The auditor general has all the information that (he) needed."
Earlier this year, the auditor general criticized the government for failing to tell Parliament about its plans for the $50 million G8 fund, which was siphoned off $83 million that had been set aside for reducing congestion at border crossings.
In a long-awaited report, Interim Auditor General John Wiersema said the government "did not clearly or transparently" identify how the money would be spent when asking for parliamentary approval for the funds.
Thirty-two of 240 projects that were being considered for funding received government approval, most of which were in Clement's riding away from both the summit and any border crossings. Wiersema's report said there was scant evidence to explain how many of the projects were approved.
At the time, the opposition parties accused Clement and a small number of government officials of making the final decisions.
Angus told CTV's Power Play Monday that the ongoing question of the G8 spending is "serious business."
"This is the Treasury Board president. This is the guy who's supposed to demand accountability from every ministry so that taxpayers' money is spent properly," Angus said of Clement, who was health minister at the time of the summit.
"What we've seen in Muskoka is this guy's been blowing through the money and he had a very cavalier attitude towards any of the checks and balances that are normally in place to protect taxpayers' dollars."
Back in June when he released his report, Wiersema said that the government knew it was misleading Parliament on the border fund.
"It was presented to Parliament as part of the border infrastructure fund when everyone at the time it was going to be used for the G8 Legacy Fund," he said. "Asking for money for one purpose and using it for another purpose, is a serious problem."
The government responded to the report by vowing to improve the process through which it approaches Parliament with funding requests.
Angus said Monday that the emails are proof of "a real black hole of accountability."
"Canadians are still wanting an answer, and I think Mr. Harper is misplaying the mood of Canadians," Angus said.
"He thinks that Canadians…are going to forget. Canadians aren't stupid. They are going to expect accountability one way or the other, and if the government doesn't answer now they're going to answer for it later."
